Improved railway-rail



A. F. SMITH.

Railway Rail.

No. 90,597. Patented May 25, 1869.

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Letters Patent No. 90,597, dated May 25,1869.

IMPROVED RAILWAY-RAIL The Schedu1e rferred to in these LettersPatent and rnakingpart of the lame.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBAF. SMITH, of Norwich, county of New London,and State of Connecticut, have invented certain. Improvements in Railroad-Tracks; and I do hereby declare that thesfollowing is afull and exact description thereof.

My invention is intended almost exclusively for steel rails, or rails of analogous material, which are very durable in withstanding wear, but are open to .ObjGOf tion on account of their liability-to crack. The invention may be used with iron rails, but it is there of much less importance. My invention consists in making the notches in the edges of the bottom flange rounded instead of angular. Steel rails have been found by practice peculiarly liable to crack and break near the ends. The notch made to receive the spike weakens the rail at that point, .and the end breaks ofl'. It rarely breaks quite across the rail, but in a manner almost equally dangerous and ruinous.

I have conceived that this alarming difliculty can be effectually surmounted by simply changing the form of the notches. I I make notches with round corners insteadof square ones, using a punch having a rounded section instead of the ordinary punch with a rectangular section. v

I will proceed to describe what I consider the best means of carrying out my invention.

The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification.

Figure 1 is a plan of a joint; I

Figure 2 shows the same, with the splicing-piece removed;

Figure 3 is a cross-section ;v I

Figure 4 is a top view of the end of a rail; and

Figure 5 is a bottom view of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in all the figures.

A A are the rails.

B, the chair.

G, the splicing-piece, held down, and keeping the rails in line by the aid of the screw-bolts c.

D are the ordinary holding-spikes. These spikes maybe made according to any of the approved pat, terns. They may have rounded sections, to correspond to the form of the notches, ormay be of the ordinary rectangular section,.a's convenience may dictate.

The notches in the rails are marked a; their corners, or that part of their outline which corresponds to the corners of he notches iufordinary rails, are indicated by a'u'. They are rounded to the extent indicated, by giving a corresponding form 'to the punch by which they are produced.

The punch may be operated, and the rail may be held, in the act of punching, in the ordinary manner.

N o particular difficulty is experienced in the act of punching, or in producing or keeping in repair the punches which are employed.

The actual amount ofpower required to punch a hole of a given area is a little less, with this form of hole, than with the rectangular form, and the liability of the punch to break is somewhat diminished by the adoption of my invention; but these advantages are trifling compared to the increased safety and the durability of the ra'ls.

This invention has been applied to some fortythousand tons of steel rails, which have been some months in use in the track of the Hudson River Railroad, one

of the most severely worked passenger-railroads in thecountry. The speed on this railroad is generally conceded'to be the highest in America.

My improvement has made the steel rail a success.

Having now fully described my invention,

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

I claim, in railroad-tracks, the rounded form of the notches a a in the rails A, arranged as and for the purposes herein set forth.

A. F. SMITH.

Witnesses:

WM. 0. DEY, O. O. Lrvmes. 

